New Paradigm Supercapacitors for Energy Storage

Abstract

Super dielectric materials potentially can have a game changing impact on the US Navy: Enabling electric based weapons systems. During the past year our team, largely funded by NRP, has made significant progress toward creating SDM based capacitors which advance this goal. Working with five NPS students, significant progress was made in building, testing, and characterizing several types of Super Dielectric Materials (SDM), and additionally inventing two new categories of SDM. Papers were written and published in peer reviewed journals regarding improved characterization of power, energy, dielectric constants of capacitors based on two previously invented SDM categories materials: particle based SDM (P-SDM), and anodized titania based SDM (Tube SDM). The published papers included, for the first time, systematic study of the impact of frequency on SDM performance. A US patent was issued for P-SDM and T-SDM. Two entirely new categories of SDM were invented, fabric based SDM (F-SDM) and, thin plastic sheet based SDM (PL-SDM), and appropriate patents filed. Initial studies of the newly invented PL-SDM, based on the use of very thin hydrophobic plastic with mechanically created macro scale holes, suggests a potential ‘game changing’ technology. Specifically, we have now repeatedly created capacitors based on this inexpensive, simple to construct, technology with a delivered energy of between 65 and 75 J/cm3 of dielectric. Notably, two students completed MS degrees based on their work with SDM during the grant period, and three students are making excellent progress toward completing MS thesis work on the topic.